Monday, July 30, 2012

Apart from that ridiculous pastor who believes gays should
be kept behind electrified fences, in the Apostolic Truth Tabernacle Church in
Greensburg Indiana a small boy in clean white shirt stands before the
congregation and sings a song that ends with the words ‘Ain’t no homos gonna
make it to heaven.’ This is received with cheers and whoops and a voice
shouting ‘That’s my boy!’ Presumably that was the child’s proud one hundred
percent heterosexual daddy and it would serve him right if his boy turned out
to be the biggest, most obvious, airy-fairy faggot Indiana ever saw. The video
clip evidently went, or has gone, viral, forcing the church to back pedal,
putting out a statement in which the pastor writes that they do not hate anybody
no matter what or who, etcetera. This is like saying white supremacists or the
KKK didn’t hate black skins when they strung someone up from
the nearest tree or burnt crosses on their front lawns; like the Nazis saying
they didn’t really hate Jews, they just did want them around, like the Turks saying
they didn’t destroy Smyrna and massacre Greeks and Armenians, that is one big
lie. But you see, if you are a so-called Christian you have to go along with
what the Bible says even if it was written by superstitious Bronze age prophets
all those years ago when the world was still sort of young, and certainly not
very wise, and certainly had little or any conception of the vagaries of human
nature; only that as God’s creation we ought to obey the rules he set down as interpreted
by them, rules that we should live by even today with all the advances that
have been made in psychology, physiology, etcetera.It never ceases to amaze me that Christians
(so-called) whenever they want to express horror at what we humans get up to,
always cite the Old Testament, never ever the new, because there is little if
anything in the New Testament capable of raising their wrath. Well, apart from the ravings of that schizophrenic Saul of
Tarsus. So, according to the Old Testament we still have to slaughter a bull in
sacrifice to the Lord, we can sell our daughters into slavery and we can murder
our sons if they disobey us. How come these aspects of what is called God’s
everlasting word are simply ignored? And if heaven is filled with the likes of
the good Christians of the Apostolic
Truth Tabernacle
Church I should think any
self-respecting homo would be only too delighted not to go there.

Now let us ask where God was in Aurora. Rob Rendle, the
founding pastor of Denver United Church
a former associate pastor at New Life Church in
Colorado Springs says, “The movie theater
shooting in Aurora, Colorado shook me and the rest of the
nation. Reading about the young and unsuspecting victims… Why did this happen?
Where was God in all of it? How could a loving God allow this? We pastors face
the unenviable task of being asked to answer for God. Most people ask the big
questions in times of irresolution, times when satisfying answers are scarce. Let’s
be clear: there are no easy answers to the deepest questions of suffering.
Libraries overflow with the volumes that have been written to address these
questions. Centuries of philosophers, pundits and preachers have reflected on
the existence of evil, the meaning of pain and the role of God in suffering. I
won’t begin to recount all of their ruminations here. But here’s what I think.

The capacity to choose God and goodness came with the commensurate ability
to choose evil. Is it loving to force his creation to follow his order, or to
teach it and leave the creature to choose? But Scripture also teaches that God
is totally in control. He is all-powerful and all-knowing and he is willing and
able to intervene in human events. (?) So there is a gap between human choice
and divine foreknowledge, a gap that transcends understanding and that helps
define God in my mind. There are at least four influences on human events:
God’s will, to be sure; but also the will of Satan, our adversary; peoples’
choices, for better or for worse; and natural law (gravity, collision,
combustion, and the like). It is difficult to know which force causes the
circumstances that devastate us. But it is enough to know that God need not be
responsible for them.” With him so far?
“Where was God in Aurora?
He was on the lawn in front of the Civic
Building as thousands
gathered in solidarity, hope, and love at a packed prayer vigil last Sunday. He
was in University
Hospital as neurosurgeons
groped for synonyms for miraculous.(?) He was in the outpouring of compassion
at a victim’s funeral and in the passionate call for unity from a resolute councilwoman and at the bedside
vigil of a wounded victim’s church community.(?) Redemption has only begun in Aurora, and already God
is everywhere. Their (sic) will be beauty once this story is written that
overshadows and transcends the ashes. Where is God in Aurora? He is shining brightly from the hearts of his people.”
But he wasn’t there to save their lives.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

How
money over and above daily living expenses dribbles, or rather, bleeds away
with the unexpected: Service and repair to air-conditioner 80euro. Replacement
of bathroom mirror - 55. Catalytic converter and exhaust on the car 150.New
hand brake 50. Replacing Douglas’s lost
prescription sunglasses - 150. That is the equivalent of one moths’ pension, in
fact a little more. Have I left anything out? More than likely. Still to come,
replacement of two sets of metal windows that have rusted beyond repair, quotes
so far 2000 and 1600 euro. We will try and do better than that!

Our
friend Diane making her annual holiday visit brought two DVD’s with her, ‘The
Woman In Black’ and ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.’ Though looking forward to
them both they both turned out to be slightly on the disappointing side,
neither of them really living up to their hype. I felt the same way about ‘The
Artist.’ Obviously in my twilight years I am becoming harder and harder to
please because they’re not actually bad but certainly not five star.

‘The
Marigold Hotel’ has a cast list consisting of the crème-de-la-crème of British
thespiana (new word before somebody points it out as a typo.) Starting with the
inevitable dames, Judy Dench and Maggie Smith, and continuing with Tom Wilkinson,
Bill Nighy, whose performance I particularly liked, Penelope Wilton, Ronald
Pickup, Celia Imre, Dev Patel, an energetic performance I also liked. There was
a time when no actor would dare to play a gay role as it would more than likely
put an end to his career but now they seem to be queuing up for it, the latest
being Tom Wilkinson. It’s a great shame that Brad Pitt and the producers of ‘Troy’ chickened out of
the Achilles/Patrokles affair and consequently made total nonsense of the movie.
You simply don’t go bananas over the death of a cousin unless that cousin also
happens to be your lover.

Our
friend Beryl Mayes has also been out
on her annual holiday and invariably on departure leaves books behind, one of
which this time is ‘The Song of Achilles’ by Madeline Miller, winner of The
Orange Prize. If Beryl hadn’t left
it, what a wonderful surprise, I feel sure, having read the reviews, I would
have wanted to get it and indeed I’m enjoying it immensely. Apart from anything else, I will say this for Miss Miller
she writes the most beautiful love scene I think I have ever read. Without
going into lurid detail she paints a picture of erotism powered by love that is
wonderfully poetic, unlike most writers’ sex scenes that in their detail, what
she does to him, what he does to her, he to he, she to she, has one’s toes curling
in embarrassment – mine anyway – and let’s face it I am far from being a prude.

And
so to ‘The Woman In Black.’ So what was it disappointed me here? Well it did
raise a few goose-pimply moments but nothing truly spine-chilling. I didn’t
like the big close-ups of the raving ghost. Seeing her from
a distance or suggesting her would have been enough. Although I haven’t seen it
in many a long year I still remember the scene in ‘The Innocents,’ can quite
clearly see it in my mind’s eye, Deborah Kerr looking across the lake and
seeing the forlorn looking black figure standing in the reeds. As the saying goes
‘my blood ran cold!’ For example in this movie our hero looking out of a window
and her face appearing to look over his shoulder was a wonderful scary moment.
And what about Daniel Radcliffe’s performance? Well, frankly, also a bit
disappointing. Excellent when required to mutely react but weak when required
to open his mouth. But that is only my opinion.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

I wrote a letter to The Daily mail. I feel certain
it will not be published; in fact I know it will not be published, but I gained
some satisfaction in writing it. The only paper that prints my letters is The Athens News.

The Editor,

Daily Mail.

Re: Tom Utley’s column, Daily Mail July 6,
2012

I usually enjoy Tom Utley’s column, a man
who talks a great deal of sense so, to put it mildly I was little disappointed
to discover in Friday’s column that our Mister Utley is something of a
homophobe. Now I know from previous
columns that he had a religious upbringing but isn’t it time, as a highly
intelligent adult, he put aside the blinkers and accepted that homosexuality is
as much a part of nature as heterosexuality? He might never have experienced it
in any shape or form himself but to write that it is “against the facts of
life” is plainly ridiculous. What on earth are the facts of life? The facts of
life are myriad, homosexuality itself, just like heterosexuality comes in many
shapes and forms and, as Goethe said, ‘How can you call anything in nature
unnatural?

Poor Mr. Utley, however would you be able
to cope if you suddenly discovered that one of your four sons of whom you are
evidently and quite rightly so proud, turned out ‘against the facts of life’ to
be gay? How would you cope?

Yours sincerely,

Would he, I wonder, like the Brazilian MP
say, ‘Rather a dead son than a gay one’?

Sad, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, whatever happened to ‘till death do us part?’ I suppose it was really always a no-no, except
for the happy few who celebrate countless anniversaries before one or the other
departs this vale of woe. The Bishop of London has said promiscuity, separation
and divorce have reached epidemic proportions in Britain,
and the extent of youth unemployment in Britain is "appalling." What the one has to do with the other I really
don’t know but there you are, the Bishop is obviously a very worried man. He
says people should use the Queen's Diamond Jubilee to restore strained
relationships but he doesn’t say just how that is to be achieved.

He said although people were better off in many ways than in 1952, material
progress had come at the expense of equality and communal life. Better off? At
the same time I read that in Britain
a family of four needs £36800 a year to stay above the poverty line. Writing in
a Bible Society pamphlet, the Bishop said relationships had become more
strained, fragile and broken than people cared to recognize.
A spokesperson (note the PC will ya?) for The National Secular Society said
having a choice to leave unsuccessful marriages was something to be welcomed.
But back to the Bish. ‘Literally millions of children grow up without
knowing a stable, loving, secure family life - and that is not to count the
hundreds of thousands more who don't even make it out of the womb each year,’
he said. So abortion now enters his argument so we have divorce, unemployment
and abortion.
Terry Sanderson, of the National Secular Society, which aims to challenge
religious privilege, said that ‘while Britain had problems, there was no
“epidemic”- of immorality. That people now have the choice to escape from painful and unsuccessful marriages is something
to welcome,’ he said. ‘It has not always been so, and women in particular have
borne the brunt of sometimes brutal marriages from
which they could not escape - mainly because the Church would not let them. How
many cases of domestic violence are reported every year and how many more that aren’t?
Like so many other clergymen, the bishop is trying to convince us that we are
immoral because we have progressed in ways that he doesn't like. And that is
probably why his church is so empty.’
Caroline Davey, from charity
Gingerbread, which provides support for single parents, said “poverty and
conflict” were the most powerful drivers of poor outcomes for children. ‘Modern
British family life is made up of a range of different family types, all of
whom need and deserve support - not criticism - as they bring up their children
in these difficult economic times,’ she added. That is being as starry-eyed as
the good old Bish considering how many people are incapable of bringing up
children in the first place.
Dr Chartres presented the biblical understanding of a Jubilee as an
opportunity to take a long view, and think about the kind of environment being
bequeathed to following generations. He said it should include a move to living
within our means. I wonder what the Bishop’s stipend amounts to and whether he would
be willing to forego any of it to aid a charitable cause, or perhaps divert
some of the church’s immense wealth for the same purpose. Somehow I doubt it.
After all what is the church for but to keep the higher echelons of the clergy
on the gravy train?

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

I’m still on the religious bit, guys so if
it offends you, or bores you silly, skip today’s Blog and wait for a more
interesting episode. After all what is this about that is so important? Well, a
little bit of skin the good Lord gave us and then demanded certain peoples take
it away. But was it really God who demanded it or was it simply a matter of
practicality where personal hygiene is concerned? Interesting don’t you think
that circumcision took off and took on a religious aspect in countries hot,
dry, and without water to waste on such matters as washing cocks. The ancient
Egyptians used to laugh at the Greeks for being uncircumcised and the Greeks
laughed at the Egyptians who walked around half-cocked as it were. The fact is
smegma, that secretion from glands
beneath the foreskin, there’s no point in denying it, does not rate highly in
the olfactory sense and I feel sure the ancient prophets thought, aha, the way to
get rid of this awful aroma is to cut away the prepuce and be done with it, the
smegma will be naturally rubbed off in contact with clothing etcetera, no need
to waste precious water and, if there is any objection, we will say the order
came from God. Excuse me for being
an ignorant goy but does that not make a lot of sense? Like why didn’t those
ancients keep pigs? Of all animals pigs require a lot of water. Goats, no,
camels, no, but in a desert situation pigs are definitely out and, without
refrigeration, pork will go off a lot quicker than goat or camel. Practicalities
again. So why, as the aforesaid ignorant goy, am I writing this? It has nothing
whatsoever to do with me. With no religious belief of my own and with all due
respect to ancient tradition I find the whole thing a storm in a very small teacup;
a demitasse even, so why am I bothering? Well, as it was only to be expected,
the German court ruling has caused such ructions that for the first time in
goodness knows how many years, if not centuries, Jews and Muslims have actually
banded together to defend their rights and their religious practices. But
evidently the circumcision of infants has become something of a cause celebre
in Holland too,
as well as the banning of Halal meat (that would include Kosher I suppose) and
the Bhurka. Ibrahim Wijbenga said “The motivation is plain Islamophobia. It is
not a discussion about medical ethics.” Presumably, following his argument, it
is anti-Semitic as well. Maybe Ibrahim is right. Western nations are at last
waking up to the fact that as the Muslim population in their midst increases so
their way of life becomes a bigger and bigger bone of contention.

But let’s stick with what motivated this
Blog. I have personally met more than one adult Jew angry and bitterly resentful of what was done to him as
a babe and I wondered what would happen if one of these gentlemen decided to
sue for damages his parents and the mohel who performed the operation? Hey! Here’s
a thought – supposing it’s a scam, the parents and the mohel in on it and they
all share the pay out. But before my Jewish friends blow a gasket and take
exception to my flippancy, with all the brouhaha caused by the courts it may be
forgotten that there are, or so I am led to believe, a great many Jews in
Europe and the Americas
who do not practice circumcision. In America the majority of circumcisions
are not performed ritually but take place in a hospital – a good source of
revenue. The fact also is that circumcision by removing the protective sheath
over the glans reduces sensitivity and to put it in a nutshell, as Rabelais
said, ‘foreskin- the only wrinkles that please.’

Now I see Gauleiter Merkel, that woman of
steel who has virtually single-handedly brought Greece to its knees – “There is
no alternative to austerity” (this, despite the fact that Germany owes billions
in reparation for the atrocities of World War 11 and refuses to stump up citing
time lapse) has entered the fray on the side of the circumcisers as have
various members of her government. Okay for her. She’s neither Jewish nor
Muslim and she’s only in it for the votes. And that is quite enough of that.
The subject grows tedious and hopefully will never be mentioned again.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

They call it a modern version of alchemy –
at the Imperial College
in London, the
Centre for Synthetic Biology - the design and creation of forms of life that
have never existed in nature. If God wasn’t dead before he sure is dead now
because what our scientists are doing is playing at being God or endeavouring
to. On this over-crowded planet where each day mankind encroaches more and more
on the natural habitat, destroying it and its wildlife as he goes, we have artificial
insemination, cloning, GM crops and now this; the creation of new forms of
life. A report for the Royal Academy of Engineering concludes that this new
science is of "critical importance to building a nation's wealth".
Here we go again; in the end it always seems to come down to money. ‘Imagine
bacteria,’ it goes, ‘fitted with artificial DNA, harnessed to churn out an anti-malaria
vaccine.’ – That evidently is already happening in California. Is California swarming with malaria carrying
mosquitoes? First I’ve heard of it, but then I am a bit of an ignoramus on the
subject of California.

‘Or imagine bacteria with synthetic genes
that make them light up when parasites are detected in drinking water - that
has been proven to work at Imperial. Or imagine organisms transformed into
factories to make us fuel or materials, or engineered to gobble up oil spills
and industrial pollution, or crafted to provide the power and wiring for the
next generation of computers.’ When a leading scientist was asked where this
could lead, he replied impatiently: "That's like wondering back in the
1960s what a computer could do - who can tell?" Who can tell indeed?
Remember Frankenstein my friends, remember thalidomide and wonder just what you
are going to unleash on an unsuspecting world. Actually it could, on the other
hand, be the saving of the planet as it wipes us all out and everything has to
start all over again. Instead of another ice-age we will have a microbe age. Brave
new world. Is it at all possible for nature ever to be controlled or will
nature eventually enact its revenge? In a musical I wrote many years ago based
on the Cupid and Psyche legend (just another one never performed alas) a line
in a lyric reads, ‘chase out nature and she comes back at the double.’ Maybe
instead of ‘chase’ it should read ‘change.’

One comment on the article reads – I am
trying to imagine the possibilities but unfortunately my imagination stops at
the four legged chicken. Many a true word as the old saying goes. Wow! Imagine
it! Four drumsticks! Now that is progress.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Why do cities fight over who is to host the
Olympic Games? Is it really worth the hassle? London
would have been much better off if they had let Paris
have them, sit by, enjoy, and watch Paris
go bankrupt. Four years after the event Athens
is still trying to recover. Is it worth the supposed kudos? The opening is only
a few days away now and the buzz word is ‘CHAOS!’ The main road from Heathrow
Airport to central London was closed for repairs but has
reopened. But, more important, a huge question mark hangs over the security
arrangements. The company contracted at enormous cost has failed to come up
with its full quota of personnel and is reputedly signing on teenagers as
security! Meanwhile the government is drafting in 3500 soldiers to help out and
athletes are already arriving though it might take them, we are informed, about
two hours to get through security. Law courts in the country have had their cases
postponed because of the number of police drafted to London so the next question is, even though
the venues themselves may be well guarded against terrorist attacks, what about
the rest of the country? Bombs going off elsewhere, Birmingham
or Manchester
say, or any other major city, will have just as devastating an effect. But the
possible acts of terrorism will not be confined to the UK. There has
already been one incident. The president of Libya's
Olympic committee, Nabil Elalem, is reported to have been abducted in Tripoli. According to
eyewitness he was in his car with a colleague when two vehicles carrying armed
men forced him to stop. A spokesman for Libya's Olympics commission told a
Libyan TV channel that the men had claimed to be from
the army and asked Mr. Elalem "politely" to go with them. His
colleague was left in the car.

Thousands of athletes and officials have begun arriving
in London for
the Olympic Games, as questions remain about recruitment of security staff.

Preparations are intensifying just a few days before the opening ceremony. The
first priority "Games Lane"
has begun operation on the M4 - the main route from
Heathrow Airport The rest of the 30 miles of
dedicated lanes in the Olympic Route Network (ORN) will be operational by the
middle of next week, with heavy fines for those who misuse them. All road users
will be able to go into the lanes when they are not in use overnight. Kevin
Delaney, from the Institute of Advanced
Motorists, said the lanes could exacerbate
traffic problems in the capital. “If anything goes wrong with the central and
inner London
transport network, we tend to get a wholly disproportionate amount of
congestion - and so the Games lanes themselves will actually impose serious
constraints on this already stretched network,” he told BBC Radio 5 live. The
Olympic drug testing lab starts work. The biggest anti-doping operation in the
history of the Olympics has begun. Speaking to BBC News channel, London mayor Boris Johnson said: “London is as ready, in fact readier than any
Olympic city has ever been at this stage in proceedings.” Heathrow Airport
is standing by to process as many as 120,000 passengers a day, about 10,000
more than would be normal for this time of year. Already hundreds of athletes have
been welcomed through Terminal 4 by a huge crew of smiling, garishly-dressed
Olympic volunteers - and armed police
with sniffer dogs!

The Mayor of London said: “It's absolutely vital that we get the message
across these Games are going to be very safe, very secure. Obviously you can
never be complacent about security, you can never take anything for granted -
and huge amounts of work continue to be done, particularly on the intelligence
side, to make sure that we have anticipated every conceivable threat - but London
will be very, very safe.” Fine, all well and good – but what about outside London?
Of course there will be many who can’t wait to get on the gravy train. For
example someone we know who spends the occasional night in London used to stay in a bed and breakfast in
Hackney, normally charging £28. When he called recently to book a room guess
what! The nightly charge is now £320! Hopefully their bookings will be few and
far between. A few years back I wrote a novel ‘The Journeys We Make’ all about
a mother and her daughters leaving London
for warmer climes to escape the 1948 London Olympic Games. I wonder how many
Londoners have left to escape these.http://www.amazon.com/Journeys-Make-Glyn-Idris-Jones/dp/960984183X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342505694&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Journeys+We+make

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

London taxi driver Tina Kiddell estimates that something like twice as
many streets in London
are named after men than women. She describes herself as “a woman in a man's
world” and has an in-depth knowledge of the city, after driving people around
it for 24 years. When not behind the wheel, she spends much of her spare time
poring over a copy of The London Encyclopaedia, a comprehensive reference book
of more than 1,000 pages. “Every single road has got a story. For example, Gower Street was
named in 1790 after a lady named Lady Gertrude Leveson-Gower, who married the
fourth Duke of Bedford,” she says. “Cavendish Square - named after Henrietta Cavendish, a daughter
of the Duke of Newcastle, Charlotte Street - named after Queen Charlotte, wife
of George III, Gunnersbury Park/Lane/Avenue (W3) - named after Gunylde, a niece
of King Canute, Minories (EC3) - named after the Minoresses, the nuns of St
Clare, who had an abbey there, Savile Row (W1) - named after Dorothy Savile,
the third Earl of Burlington's wife, and you have Bedford Square at the end of
Gower Street - so there's your little story about a family marrying together
and having the two names in one area where they had houses and owned land.” Kiddell
is proud of her city's history and the stories behind it and is not bothered by
London's
somewhat male-dominated street map. “When the streets were named, women were
subservient to men. Whether that was right or wrong at that time, that was the
way it was," she says. “You can't change history.”

But Julia Long from
the London Feminist Network says the women in Rome are absolutely right to question the
status quo.

“I would love to see a similar project
taken up in London.
It would play a big part in ensuring that women feel recognised and valued in
our city,” she says. Long is concerned about the impact this has on the
self-esteem of women and girls. She also thinks it gives men an inflated sense
of entitlement and self-worth. This is a very personal opinion that I doubt has
much if any validity. No one really takes notice of the gender of street names
and why they should be the cause of a sense of entitlement and self-worth in
men or self-esteem in women and girls is quite frankly beyond me. “Oh, look,
that street is named after a man isn’t that great?” “Oh, look, that street is
named after a woman, hiss-boo, it lessens my sense of entitlement and worth.”
What a load of old codswallop or, rather, bee in the bonnet time.

But back to Rome where "Street names are a very
important form of recognition,” Ercolini says They are a way of immortalizing a
person, and of holding in high esteem their achievements. The message conveyed
by the naming of such a disproportionate number of streets after men is that
men are of more value and importance than women," she argues. And so on
and so on. So name a few more streets after women what difference will it make? Not many will take any notice.

Naturally this article was open to comments
of which here are a few.

I live on a housing estate with roads named
after common native bird species. As if there wasn't already enough important
stuff going on the world I am now worried that amphibians, reptiles,
platyhelminths and members of the dioptera are underrepresented on our street
maps.

Street names are not sexist but male
dominated and there is a huge difference. In a corner of the town where I live
streets are named after poets. Would I rather live in Plath Drive than Hughes Avenue? Yes, but not because
Sylvia Plath was a woman and Ted Hughes was a man, but because she was clearly
the superior poet.

I have done my bit to rectify this
situation as I have persuaded my wife to change her name by Deed Poll to A259.

To
resolve this is quite simple, prefix half the street names with Mrs. or Ms or
is that another argument?

What a travesty
of male chauvinism! What we need is a quota to correct this, all new roads to
be named after women! We need a new road name gender equality Quango to draw up
a list of names and allocate these to new roads until half are named after
women. There is also a lack of roads named after transgender persons, so we
need a quota for them too, also ethnic minorities, different religions etc.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Streets. Street, road, lane, drive, boulevard,
thoroughfare, place, crescent, square or circus, whatever you want to call it
I’m surprised no one has thought of doing a television series on streets;
fictional or documentary. “I have often walked down this street before, but the
pavement always stayed beneath my feet before, all at once am I seven stories
high knowing I’m on the street where you live,’ the song from
‘My Fair Lady’ by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewes says it all. Suddenly
the street isn’t just a street anymore but something entirely different. Maybe
someone has done a series and I just don’t know about it but there must be a
million fascinating stories waiting to be discovered.

The street where Maureen Walsh lives has the totally
opposite effect of being seven feet high. What's it like to be the only
resident on a road full of empty houses? Thousands of people have been left
"utterly stranded" in desolate streets up and down the country
because housing regeneration schemes have stalled. "I just feel really,
really sad when I look out of the window," says Mrs. Walsh, who bought her
two-bedroom terrace in Oldham with husband
Terry in 1973. Opposite where a terrace once mirrored her own behind a
wire-fence barrier, a single inhabited home of an elderly lady is propped up by
the remains of its derelict, pigeon-infested neighbours, their gaping sides
covered with tarpaulin. London
Road in Oldham is just one of scores across England
earmarked for demolition in 2005. It was part of Labour's ambitious £2.2bn
project to breathe new life into neighbourhoods "characterised by
dereliction, crime, anti-social behaviors and poor services" and blighted
by "housing market failure". The Pathfinder scheme as it was called,
initially in nine areas of England,
was designed to attract private-sector investment to improve housing stock and
increase demand. In places, it meant replacing terraces, said to be in low
demand, with family homes with gardens and parking spaces. But eight years on,
the scheme was reeling from the
successive blows of the recession, the collapse in house-building, and public
spending cuts.

The current government wound it up with Housing Minister Grant Shapps
branding it a failure - "bulldozing buildings and knocking down
neighbourhoods... demolishing our Victorian heritage.” There is an old saying,
“The way to hell is paved with good intentions,” and Labor’s constant “Ve haf
vays of makink you do it” interference is typical. The failure of the scheme
has left some neighbourhoods in limbo - including many householders who opposed
the programme. Mrs. Walsh admits she was a "thorn in the side" of
Pathfinder. While most householders moved out, she was among a minority who
fought demolition in court.
In Liverpool, Toxteth's "Welsh
Streets" became a Pathfinder cause celebre. Built in the 1880s and given
Welsh names by builders honouring their homeland, the terraces hit the
headlines thanks to 9 Madryn
Street, birthplace of former Beatle Ringo Starr. I
wonder if my Welsh grandfather, who built most of the old part of Prestatyn, had
anything to do with the building. Where once children played, the streets are
desolate. Metal grilles have replaced front doors, while bay windows are
bricked up. Charities such as Save Britain's Heritage accuse councils like Liverpool of being too gung-ho on demolition.

A tiny proportion of streets in Rome are named after women, while nearly half
are named after men - and it is a similar story in other major cities around
the world. Outrageous sexism? A simple fact of history? Or both?

Place your finger on a street map and it's far more likely to land on a road
named after a man than one named after a woman. You may not have given it much
thought, but Maria Pia Ercolini has. The geography teacher in Rome says her city's landscape is dominated
by men and wants that to change. Ercolini and a team of 26 women painstakingly
went through every one of Rome's
16,550 streets to determine the gender balance. They found that 7,575 (45.7%)
of the city's streets were named after men and just 580 (3.5%) were named after
women. "That's proof of the discrimination," she says. Local
authorities, which have the final say over street names, are now being urged to
redress the balance.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

I’ve just finished reading and enjoying
another book lifted at random off the shelves. It has certainly been there a
long time. I must have bought it from
the second-hand shop in Xania all of fifteen years ago because I see the price
was 400drachma. Not exactly in the mainstream of literature, but certainly
written with style and in its quirky way a definite page-turner and quite
brilliant, the book is “Cutter and Bone” by Newton Thornburg, made into a film
in 1981 under the title ‘Cutter’s Way.’ There is no information about the
author on the book cover so I looked him up on Google and found he had written
a number of novels ‘Gentleman Born’ ‘Knockout’ ‘To Die in California’ ‘Black
Angus’ ‘Valhalla’ ‘Dreamland’ ‘The Lion at the Door’ ‘a Man’s Game’ ‘Eve’s men’
and ‘Beautiful Kate’ also made into a film. He died May 2011. If I come across
any of his other writing I would certainly look forward to reading it though it
would need to come to me as, at the moment, we are not in any position to
splash out on books. Bone is a fairly standard American dropout from the rat-race but Cutter is a great character –
a one legged, one arm, one eye survivor from
Vietnam
with a great line in wry humour and vindictiveness.

And while on the subject of books – my
Gothic thriller ‘The Museum Mysteries’ is now available on Amazon should anyone
(I hope) be interested. Together with the Novella are a number of short stories
one of which, ‘An Alternative Christmas Carol’ is one of my favourites bits of
writing but will no doubt cause a stamping of irate feet in certain quarters.

Proofing is without doubt one of the most
difficult jobs in the world. Both Douglas and I went over the manuscript a
dozen times with a fine tooth comb but sure as god made little green apples
there is at least two typos still in existence and I only discovered that
because I opened the book at random and on page 166 I find “For a moment she
stropped chewing as she hastily crossed herself.” Now how on earth did that one
escape when now without a second glance it immediately leapt screaming off the page?
It really is bloody annoying. I wonder how many more were missed.

I came across only two in Cutter and Bone
which is pretty good going these days as even books from
major publishers tend to be riddled with mistakes. Ah well, too late to do
anything about it now. Just got to live with it I guess.

Language is strange though don’t you think?
When you consider there are an estimated 7000 spoken around the world. 2200 can
be found in Asia while Europe has 260. How varied
can human expression be? Once you’ve got over the biggies; English, French,
Italian, German, Greek, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and four or five Eastern
European languages that still leaves about 240. Could you name them? I’m
buggered if I can.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Vamos’ Arts Month came to a climactic end! On
the Saturday night we had a gala concert consisting of a number of different
acts, one of which had me so hysterical I honestly thought I was going to be
sick with laughter. I don’t know how or where the sketch originated, having
never come across it before, but it was about a radio announcer, an alcoholic,
doing a kiddies’ programme “Noddy.” He holds a glass in one trembling hand and
a bottle of Gordon’s gin in the other. He starts off by telling the kids Noddy
has woken up and is about to wash his face. There is a pause as gin is poured
into the glass. ‘Do you hear the water running?’ Then Noddy decides to have a
bigger wash – more gin, cleans his teeth and finally takes a bath, more gin.
The host gets progressively more pissed, goes on a tour of the Highlands, his
car breaks down and the AA Man informs him its because there’s no water in the
radiator, glug glug glug, no water in the battery, glug glug glug, no water in
the windscreen wash, glug glug glug and I won’t give away the tag that had me
practically falling out of my seat. Chris sang two modern songs in the first
half and two numbers from Champagne
Charlie in the second. Both I’m glad to say went down well. It’s really strange
that at an age when the voice is supposed to have given in that he is better
and stronger than I have ever heard him. The only downside to the evening g was
that Douglas lost his very expensive
sunglasses. Someone must have picked them up and now has a pair worth 150euro!

Then Sunday evening at the old school, well
in the courtyard of the old school, just along the road from
us, we had a concert given by The Concert Orchestra of Rethymno. The Concert
Orchestra of Rethymno consists of students and adult musicians. They range in
age from very young to well passed
middle age and it was a totally enchanting evening. The first half was classical,
the second half pop, with vocals. But I am here to tell you that in a Haydn
Concerto the pianist was a girl who by the look of her could not have been more
than twelve and what a performance! I don’t think brilliant is a too over the
top word to use and I really hope she has the opportunity to make a career on a
much wider stage – a worldwide stage in fact if she continues on the road she
has started. From where we were sitting I couldn’t actually see who the soloist
was and when she got up to take her bow I nearly had kniptions! Fantastic.

Then on Monday Chris and Douglas went to a performance
of Aristophanes’ ‘The Birds’ in Xania. I
chickened out. This production came from
the mainland and, though not understanding the language, they both thoroughly
enjoyed it. A friend of ours, Alexei was the musical director. He took charge
of the demo disc for La Belle Otero in Athens
all those years ago.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe (Mrs.) made a plea to her fellow
Zimbabweanpoliticians. Get yourselves
circumcised and reduce the risk of catching HIV. It would seem at least 10
Zimbabwean MP have rallied to the call. A small makeshift clinic for carrying
out the procedures was erected in Parliament House in the capital Harare but it would seem
the majority of MPs are baulking at the suggestion and I don’t blame them.
Ouch! I am led to believe that circumcision in an adult isn’t exactly the most
painless of procedures. It is said Robert Monster Mugabe is thinking of setting
an example and having it done which seems a waste of time with someone of his
age. A bit late in the day don’t you think?
Research by the UN has suggested male circumcision can reduce the spread of
HIV and Aids, reducing infection among men by 60%. Really? There are several
reasons it is said why circumcision may(?) protect against HIV infection.
Specific cells in the foreskin are thought(?) to be potential targets for HIV
infection. Following circumcision, the skin under the foreskin becomes less
sensitive and is less likely to bleed, reducing the risk of infection. But it
is not the whole solution. Promoting safe sex, providing people with HIV
testing services and encouraging the use of male and female condoms are all
seen as equally important. Some experts are saying there is a danger in sending
out a message that circumcision can protect against HIV because it could lead
to an increase in unprotected sex. Note the ‘may’ and ‘thought’ above which is
hardly reassuring so let me ask this – When Aids was first experienced in the United States
and was known as the gay plague how come it claimed so many many many victims
when ninety percent of American males are circumcised? Surely this fact should
have reduced the infections by that mythical 60%? My 90% is as big a guess as
the UN’s 60% so let’s just say the majority of American males. Modern thinking
is of the opinion that circumcision is a totally unnecessary procedure unless
the foreskin needs to be removed because of phimosis for example. So most Europeans
under the age of say 40/45 (another guess) will be found to be uncircumcised
except for those who are done for religious reasons. Though I read that a
German court has caused a volcanic eruption by stating that the circumcision of
babies is mutilation and no one should undergo the operation until the are old
enough to decide for themselves. This goes completely against Jewish and Muslim
custom of course so it’s little wonder it has caused an unbelievable uproar. Who
knows? One day outmoded customs might just die of their own accord. The court
in Germany has ruled that circumcising young boys for religious reasons amounts
to bodily harm and that a child's right to physical integrity trumps religious
and parental rights. The case involved a doctor who carried out a circumcision
on a four year-old that led to medical complications. Although male
circumcision - unlike female circumcision - is not illegal in Germany, the court's judgment said
the "fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the
fundamental rights of the parents”. Circumcision, it decided, contravenes
"interests of the child to decide later in life on his religious
beliefs".

Sunday, July 8, 2012

It’s not only Afghan clerics ridiculed or in trouble with their flock. The
Russian Orthodox Church has apologised for showing a photo of its leader
Patriarch Kirill that was doctored to airbrush out a luxury watch he was
wearing. Despite the airbrushing the watch's presence was given away by its
reflection on a polished table top. The gold Breguet watch is estimated to be
worth more than $30,000 (£19,000) was spotted by Russian bloggers. The original
photo, dated 3 July 2009, showed a meeting between the Patriarch and Russian
Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov. The doctored version appeared quite
recently. In a statement the Patriarch's press service said "we reject on
principle any use of photo editing software to alter the appearance of images the
manipulation would be investigated and the guilty ones will be punished
severely." In February a photo of Patriarch Kirill meeting President Putin
- who was prime minister at the time - showed Kirill wearing the Breguet watch.
Last week he told a Russian interviewer, that expensive watches were not part
of his official attire. He admitted owning a Breguet watch but said he kept it
in its box. He keeps the box on his wrist?

The Pope has accepted the resignation of an Argentine
bishop after the publication of pictures showing him embracing a woman on a
Mexican beach. Bishop Fernando Bargallo, 57, was photographed in the sea,
hugging a woman in a bikini. He initially said she was a childhood friend, but
later admitted to having had "amorous ties" with her. In one of the
pictures, he is seen half-submerged in the water, embracing the woman. Shortly
after the pictures were published, Monsignor Bargallo gave a public statement
saying that the woman was a childhood friend, whom he had known all of his
life. He said the situation in which he had been photographed was
"imprudent, as it could lead people to jump to the wrong conclusion."
He asked his flock to forgive him for "the ambiguity of the pictures"
and urged them to view the photos "in the context of a long friendship."
But later that same week, Monsignor Bargallo convened the priests of his
diocese and told them he had had "amorous ties" with the woman and
would resign.

The Vatican
has strongly condemned a book on sexual ethics by an American nun and
theologian – “Just Love – A framework for Christian sexual ethics by Sister
Margaret A. Farley. Published in 2006, the
book has received widespread praise from
Christians of all denominations and has been used as a textbook in college
courses on sexual ethics. For it, Farley won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award
for Religion from Louisville
Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 2008. (Presbyterians are coming into the
modern age? Wow! How about Muslims? Fat chance.) The "notification"
says Farley's book "ignores" or "contradicts" Catholic
teaching, presenting it as "one opinion among others," and warned
that it should not be "used as a valid expression of Catholic teaching,
either in counseling and formation, or in ecumenical and interreligious
dialogue." In plain English we believe
it’s a load of crap – ignore it. The "notification" was approved by
Pope Benedict XVI on March 16. The Vatican's doctrinal office singled
out masturbation, homosexuality and marriage as specific areas of concern in Just
Love. Well it would wouldn’t it? Any mention of masturbation or
homosexuality will get any number of knickers in a right old twist.

For example, Farley writes that "masturbation …
usually does not raise any moral questions at all," and that homosexual
acts "can be justified" following the same ethics as heterosexual
ones. The Vatican statement retorts that
"masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action" and
that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered" and
"contrary to natural law."

The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
states that Sister Farley’s writings manifest “a defective understanding of the
objective nature of natural moral law.” If that isn’t gobbledygook I would like
to know what is and since when did nature evince any moral law? Sister Farley
to my way of thinking has obviously written a book of sound commonsense and sound
commonsense is always dangerous to the religious bigots.

The conservatives and the reactionaries will have their
day though. I suppose it’s too much to hope they will drag themselves into the
21st century.

Friday, July 6, 2012

I am thinking seriously of giving up
Blogging as I am beginning to find it too depressing. Every time I read a
newspaper or watch the news or see a video I am reminded of just how irredeemably
sordid so much of the world is, from
individual stories to more massive horrors. For example a young girl enjoys a
night out and finds in the early hours of the morning she is just twenty pence
short of her bus fare. Is the driver sympathetic? No, he refuses to let her on the
bus. Do any of the passengers come to her rescue, after all who cannot afford twenty
pence? No, they sit tight on their bums and their wallets. What is the result?
The girl is forced to start walking and along the way is brutally raped and
beaten up.

The internet is an extremely useful tool
but, alas, it is also a forum for shysters, fraudsters, bullies, and the emotionally
disturbed.

Attention seeking on the internet takes
many forms, but the people who hoax online forums with tales of sick children
are among the most painful, writes a certain Jolyon Jenkins.

Little Charly Johns was a trouper.

She was only six years old and had cancer -
but she fought it with determination. She was in and out of hospital as the
disease advanced and retreated.

It was tough too for her mother Anna. She
joined the Macmillan online cancer forum.

There she found support and help from people who knew exactly what she was going
through.

For two years, Anna kept them updated on
Charly's progress.

"On the whole she is doing
great," she wrote. "She is happy, lively, giggly and very easily
excitable. She is always the first to laugh at anything and the last to stop.
Nobody could look at Charly now and have any idea of the things she has endured
these past 14 months."

But in November last year, Charly lost her
fight for life. On the Macmillan forum there was an outpouring of grief. People
wrote poems in Charly's memory. They painted their fingernails pink in
accordance with her last wishes - even men.

The whole thing was a hoax, discovered when
the church in Paris
where Charly's funeral was to be held turned out to have no record of her. The perpetrator,
it transpired, was a teenage girl suffering Munchhausen syndrome. The pictures
of "Charly" were the girl herself when younger. But she is far from being the only bone. There have been too many cases
in which people fabricate illnesses to gain attention and sympathy.

BBC Radio 5 live presenter Richard Bacon has revealed
that he has suffered two years of anonymous abuse directed at him, his wife and
his baby son. Bacon has complained to the police, and tried to track down his
abuser for a BBC Three documentary on abusive "trolls": The
Anti-Social Network He said he wanted to know how criticism of his work
"could go to contacting my family and tweeting about my baby.” Bacon, 36,
said the line had been crossed when criticism about his radio show turned into
abuse about his wife, his mother and five-month-old son Arthur. Much more
disturbing, he said, were the actions of "RIP trolls" who posted
offensive messages on tribute sites. "They see these nice tributes, then
they also see these weird sexual, violent comments and imagery," he said.”
For people who don't even understand Facebook in the first place, as well as
being upsetting and prolonging their grief, it's confusing.” Once upon a time it used to be anonymous
letters but it is so much easier just to use the computer.

Young girls in England are being gang-raped by
young boys. This isn’t necessarily happening only on sink estates. A girl is
cornered by two or three boys who then phone their friends with the message, “come
and join us!” and jolly good fun is had by all – except the girl of course. I
seem to remember when I was growing up in South Africa that the penalty for
rape was so many strokes of the cane and the incidence of rape (reported rape
anyway) was very low. Only masochists relish physical pain. Today in South Africa
rape is evidently endemic.

But on to a broader canvas - Imams ranting from their pulpits, ‘Death to Israel, kill the
Jews,’ and Muslim children as young as five being brainwashed on mass with the
some hysterical slogans of hate to provide a new generation of killers and
suicide bombers, already being taught how to use weapons they can hardly hold
up. And, as Alfred Jingle in Pickwick Papers says when asked if he has any more
stories to tell replies, hundreds more. But let’s leave it there shall we?

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Afghans have lampooned clerics over a
proposed ruling for women. Cartoons emerged, such as one of mullahs trapped in
a cage by a modern Afghan woman sitting on top of it. After a council of Afghan clerics issued
restrictive guidelines for women, later embraced by President Hamid Karzai,
young Afghans streamed to social media sites to lampoon the rulings. "It's
outrageous," wrote one young Afghan on his Facebook page. "The next
thing they'll be saying is that Afghanistan
needs to be divided up in two - one half for men and the other half for
women." This was just one of thousands of comments posted on social media
sites by young Afghans after their country's top religious council said
that men and women should not mix at school, work or in other everyday
situations. New sites have been set up to campaign against what critics are
calling gender segregation. "The government's expenditure is going to rise
sharply because they'll have to set up a special parliament for women, and
separate universities, banks, and shopping malls," wrote a Kabul resident on
Facebook. "Maybe, they should just divide the city into special sections
for men and women." Though there has been an angry response others have
decided that the best way to react is through humour: "Ladies, you should not surface on
Facebook without a male partner," wrote Mahnaz Afzal, an Afghan woman
currently working in London.

"We have asked the Facebook administrators to create separate profiles
for women. You are not allowed to 'like' or 'poke' someone on Facebook or you
will be cursed."
"Could I please ask the Afghan girls not to comment on my posts unless
they have permission from their
fathers or husbands or the Ulema council?" one man tweeted.
"Girls are only allowed to access Facebook if they are wearing their
burkas!" tweeted another.
Cartoons have appeared on many sites. One shows a woman in a traditional
blue burka reading the television news, her face completely hidden. Many young
Afghans see the government's support for the recommendations as a throwback to
the Taliban era and say the president is using it to reach out to the Taliban.
"It means the government is paving the way for the Taliban to control Afghanistan", says Zakia Nawa, a women's
rights activist who fled to Iran
when the Taliban came to power.
"I remember the bitter time when we were housebound by the Taliban and
were deprived of education. This is another way of restricting women's
rights."
Some members of parliament have also spoken out about the new
recommendations. Ahmad Behzad, an opposition deputy from
the western city of Herat
says it contravenes the Afghan constitution. There are of course supporters of
the proposed law by the brainwashed religious “I support the comments by the
Ulema council because it is in accordance with Islam,” said a theology student.
Most of those who have taken to Facebook and Twitter to protest are from the country's young, educated urban elite. But
there is another Afghanistan
out there, where people are deeply religious and protective of traditional
values. "I support the comments by the Ulema council because it is in
accordance with Islam," said a student of Islamic theology from southern Afghanistan. "We are Muslims and we must obey what
Islam and our clerics say," said a resident of Badghis. "I am
surprised that our young people call themselves Muslims, but when it comes to
Islamic rules, they make fun of it," wrote a Kabul resident on Facebook.

Muslims now it seems amount to twenty percent of the world
population; how long before the world is back in the dark ages?

Monday, July 2, 2012

This, believe it or not, is Blog 500 so,
put together with the ones I lost, I must have written about 750! Actually I
see it is 720. How many of them are worth anything I wonder and how much of it
is dross? Well, the only way to find out would be to reread them and that I
definitely ain’t going to do; but here are a few more tit-bits to enliven your
day.

There was once a weekly magazine in England called
Tit-Bits – human interest stories, drama and sensation. It was founded in 1881
and expired in 1984. So many publications have died. There was once an
excellent daily newspaper, The News Chronicle that ceased publication in 1960
and The London Evening News was incorporated into The Standard in 1980. The
latest to fold, thanks to Mr. Murdoch of course, is The News Of The World
(1843), or ‘The Screws’ as it was nicknamed. I never thought I would live to
see it. That paper was a famous British institution. Over the years it had lost
much of its bite of course once naughty politicians, naughty vicars and naughty
scout masters were no longer of much interest. Times do change. Anyway, today’s
tit-bits for your edification – I suppose I really should have talked about Her
Maj’s Jubilee that’s driven the UK crazy because, in a way it is a Jubilee for me,
having landed in England that very year and getting chilled to the marrow and
soaked as I remember overnight in Hyde Park waiting for that once in a lifetime
glimpse of the procession passing by but somehow I can’t seem to rake up the
enthusiasm. I remember also at the time watching the recording of the
coronation on a little black and white television at a friend’s house in Croydon.
Television was so primitive in those days.

Would you like to know where British taxes
go? Well, partly anyway. It goes on Civil Service credit cards allowing civil servants
to book into first class hotels, dine in expensive restaurants, make purchases,
etcetera without in many cases having to provide a receipt. There are 24000
cards and they have been used for such purchases as teddy bears, doughnuts, lingerie
and tooth brushes! I suppose with a stretch of the imagination these could be
claimed as legitimate expenses. I mean, you could be sitting in the Laundromat waiting
for your lingerie to be laundered, with a teddy for company and eating doughnuts
to sustain you while you wait, after which of course you will have to use a newly
purchased toothbrush to clean your teeth or your dentist’s bill will be charged
to the card and that is more money from
the exchequer. So really, when you analyse it, you are being economical with the
taxpayer’s hard earned money. After all, dentists don’t come cheap. The public
accounts committee is now evidently clamping down on the abuses. It’s amazing
how often horses and stable doors spring to mind.

Evidently the government is also worried about
the benefits system being virtually out of control. Surprise surprise! If
people can take advantage of the system they will take it. If they can fake it
and get away with it they will fake it. There are four million homes in the UK where no one
goes to work. I wonder just how many of the inhabitants are work-shy: and can
you blame them when benefits pay more than they would get by working,
especially if you have kids, the more the merrier? What started off as a
wonderful piece of socialist thinking, giving support to those in need, has
turned into a nightmare when so many rely solely on benefits and wouldn’t know
how to do a day’s work even if they were inclined to. The modern education
system doesn’t help of course. Some pupils leave school virtually illiterate
and unemployable. Some students leave university unemplpoyable! Meanwhile what
are the wonderful members of parliament getting up to righting the wrongs that
beset British society? They’re busy twittering with inane messages like ‘Kids
in bed. Chicken in Oven. Was careful not to muddle the two up.’ You realise of course
that this is what passes as the soul of scintillating wit but has the perpetrator
nothing better to do? It was the tax-payer’s vote that put her into parliament
and the tax-payer’s money that keeps her there. Who needs it?

About Me

Ex actor, ex director, still a writer, prose now no longer plays. Like the Godfather growing tomatoes. No, too old to garden but still writing - my autobiography No Official Umbrella - same title as my Blogs and soon to come out in paperback, novels and of course my favorite detective Thornton King